Session reports from the seventh round of the 2020 VWRS season, from Abu Dhabi, UAE. All 4 title challengers (Matteo Zetticci, Jules Barclay, Maximillian Thunstrom and Danilo Forini) had poor weekends in Belgium and remain separated by just 12.5 points with two rounds left. QualifyingRace 1With an excellent opportunity to take the championship lead, Thunstrom quickly passed Meyer for the lead on the first lap at turn 8. He worked on building up a solid lead while Meyer was left to fend off Zientek. Vocquelin meanwhile was struggling to get his tyres into the right temperatures and dropped down to 7th. Forini was slightly delayed when passing Vocquelin and allowed Barclay to pass him with a nice tow down the main straight. The Canadian caught up to Zeintek and under pressure, the Pole tried a late move on Meyer. It worked, but Meyer was heavily compromised, and Barclay moved into the podium places. Further back, one of the biggest gainers early on was Rafael Palou who moved from 15th to 10th, courtesy of 4 overtakes. Scott Jackson, Alex Didlock and Michael Kennedy all retired, due to electric, gearbox and hydraulic issues, respectively. Meyer continues to slip back, with Forini and Nicolas Steffensen both overtaking him with relative ease. Steffensen continued to make up ground by passing Forini at turn 5, as the Swiss driver surprisingly didn’t make much of an impression on the race. At the front, Thunstrom was starting to feel some tyre degradation and Zeintek caught him. The former defended in vain for a couple of laps, but the Phoenix junior eventually dived to the inside of turn 1 with a great move to take the lead. Towards the bottom half of the top 10, Roberts and Byrne collided at turn 7, dropping both a couple of places. The other top rookie, Raj Sharma, spun on the exit of turn 3 and hit the barriers – thankfully, he was unharmed. All this saw Palou move up to 8th, while Zetticci finally broke into the points in 10th. Uncharacteristically, there was no sudden jumps in pace for any driver in the top 6 and they remained the same in the second half of the race. Zeintek took his third win of the season while Thunstrom and Barclay settled for 2nd and 3rd, both passing Zetticci in the standings. Steffensen was happy with 4th, his second best result this year, while Forini and Meyer were disappointed in 5th and 6th. Vocquelin’s drop down the field continued into the final few laps, with both Palou and Zetticci passing him for 7th and 8th. Behind Vocquelin, Ethan Matthews rounded out the top ten, ahead of Zhivko Dimitrov, both drivers having quiet races. Hector Draper was the final points scorer – he had started 26th, but stormed through the field and set the fastest lap on the way to salvage an extremely impressive 12th. Race 2A major crash between Vocquelin, Zetticci and Barclay lets Meyer grab another win while the latter two's retirements have big implications on the title fight. Matthews takes a stunning 2nd after a late charge while rookie Cosmo Roberts finishes 3rd after a gritty and impressive drive. 4th with fastest lap for Forini and 5th for Thunstrom hand them some valuable points in the title battle. Race 3Luca Romero dominates to take his first win in VWRS, while retirements from 2nd and 3rd place starters allow Draper to take another podium. Forini takes a crucial third while Thunstrom has a brake failure. Behind him, exceptional recovery drives from Zetticci and Barclay see them snatch some points and minimise the loss to Forini.
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